I think Strat is asking this question instead: If he dies as the ruler with no PC's in his army and has a city left, does he get to re-roll a new character (that is probably 'related' to his old) and get to resume being ruler of said kingdom?

I'm not going to say what staff would do in that situation as it seems to fall close to the "trying to circumvent rules", particularly as he has been complaining about the succession system. I do not see that going well in that particular case, but I suspect it might be viewed as a way to thumb your nose at the rules rather than be a situation that just sort of happened. Also the odds of a ruler with no PCs being killed before his/her kingdom is attacked is slim to none, so odds are that even if it were permitted and Strat (or someone else) found themselves in that situation I doubt they would have a kingdom to come back to after their death. Remember that staff do not reward suicides and you would almost be required (in the vast majority of situations) to kill yourself off to reach the aformentioned situation in a way that would even permit a chance at ruling the same kingdom again in that way.

My advice? Don't gun for that situation to prove a point, you will piss off the staff, perhaps enough that they add an extra punishment, and players by trying. If it naturally happens then its up in the air but if you try to force it then IT WILL end badly for you.

Edit; I just thought of something... If you died from say a plot based on story and character development and you ran a "if my character is killed then can I run the child as inheriting" past staff then I could see this situation being permitted (perhaps, but a better chance than any other). Thats about the only situation I can think of where you would still have a kingdom to rule and staff might ok it. Admittedly thats personal opinion but I felt the need to include it as it popped into my head a few minutes after I posted the above.

I would say that if there was a situation where the only PC managed to die in a scenario that was beyond their control (losing a battle, getting killed in a plot someone did against them, etc) and not something that they directly caused (running around challenging people to death duels, going into an AH and starting something, etc) then I would agree that under such circumstances the player could be allowed to prehaps re-roll and take over the kingdom.

However... the situation where a kingdom hasn't had someone to take over when a ruler dies under legitimate circumstances (not inactive, retire, etc) has never happened and honestly I don't think we're going to ever see it happen. Even the tiny kingdoms attract a few players, just by being small. So honestly the whole thing is sort of moot. I figure the staff will make a decision if something somehow did manage to occur. It really isn't important enough to make a ruling on a what if situation that is likely never to occur.

I had no intention of causing such a situation on purpose (except PERHAPS by rejecting P.Cs entirely as a fringe option IF I was worried about my chances of actually holding onto the kingdom. As it is, I have been making plans for how to so hold)- it was just a general question for curiousity's sake.

Another question for the mods(I'm not sure if they'll answer one or both, but):

Hypothetical: Say I manage to make a kingdom that is in overt IC terms based on hereditary sucession (yes there are a lot of obstacles here, but IF). The few P.Cs and the NPC officers in the kingdom all sign pledges to support hereditary sucession and explicitly state that if they don't it will be a palace coup, treason to their lord, and usurpation. However, for some reason, despite me having a statless NPC ready to suceed, the officers reject me.

Can my new character use this IC to his advantage, at least with NPCs? The world will surely consider THAT a coup, right?

Staff answered that question in your other thread, staff won't force players/NPCs to accept hereditary succession. If you tried to make them sign pledges you would probably get PR hits from forcing the NPCs and the PCs would just ignore them if they felt like it. Other kingdoms likely wouldn't care though they might get talked badly about in the Civilian Gossip thread (which has no actual mechanical effect). The only "promises" staff enforce (to my knowledge) are crafters providing clients with what they ordered or their money back (so no crafters taking the money and running).

This ISN'T the staff forcing players to do so, however. This is players joining the kingdom and agreeing to do so as a condition of such, then going back on their word. I wouldn't be asking the staff to force them, merely to make the kingdom take a P.R hit and for NPCs to view the situation as if it were a coup de'tat- i.e. talked badly about in the Civilian Gossip thread, plus realistic roleplay effects on NPCs.

Just a small pointer, Strategist - it's coup d'etat not coup de'tat. "Etat" is state in french, and de is "of". It is written " d' " because the french convention does not allow two "e"'s one near the other.

I'm not a grammar nazi by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured that since you obviously believe in the strength and precision of words, you may want to correct this little mistake in your future posts. Since I saw you repeat this in the other thread, I assumed that it is not a keyboard error. If I am mistaken, ignore this post.

By all means, continue.

*retreats into the shadows and grabs a cup of tea*

"This is what the Gnostics have taught me. Do not question yourself about the value of the contribution. The passion itself, which gives us both our power and our pain, is the mark of eternity in our souls. No matter in what specific arena you seek your perfection; that you seek it is enough; let no one persuade you that you do too little or too much." ―Queen Rine's Meditation Upon Passion

Strategist wrote:What evidence is there for me believing in the strength and precision of words?

You just answered your own question.

"This is what the Gnostics have taught me. Do not question yourself about the value of the contribution. The passion itself, which gives us both our power and our pain, is the mark of eternity in our souls. No matter in what specific arena you seek your perfection; that you seek it is enough; let no one persuade you that you do too little or too much." ―Queen Rine's Meditation Upon Passion

This is not a thread for discussion but questions and answeres, so I will not continue Strategist. However if a staff member doesn't voice an "official" answer in say a week or so and you cannot accept the answer a player has offered then I suggest politely PMing a staff member to ask if they could take a look at your question.

As a helpful aside though I will say that if you are intent on ruling again after your PC dies I suggest that the best and easiest way to accomplish this is to recriut some good PCs and treat them well enough that they want to keep you around. Listen to their advice (and actually take it sometimes), interact with them, try to make what they want happen, pay them decently, and do your best to make the kingdom grow strong. Do these things and your PCs will want to keep you in the ruler's slot, after all ruling is actually a lot of work and responsability so if you do it well and help them have fun why shouldn't they let you shoulder it? If the PCs are ok with it then staff will let you do hereditary rule and the NPCs will react according to their personalities, but staff will not enforce mechanical penalties if PCs choose not to accept hereditary rule. So gather some good PCs, particularly 2+ trusted players who are going to be ok with what you want and you will have a good solid base of support, try to refuse PCs to stay in power and your going to fall fast.

I did a little bit of legwork in the archives and didn't really find a situation that would fit a lone ruler getting himself killed and getting re-rolled into the next ruler. I've seen kingdoms fall away and get replaced by GMNPCs and I've seen a kingdom essentially fail to put a new leader into place and operate under the flag of their apparently zombie leader.

So it's really unprecedented (or I'm an idiot and missed something). I'm not really able to give an answer there.

As for whether you could get PCs to sign a pledge supporting a hereditary succession, the PCs can still decide whether or not to support that in the moment of truth. If a PC decided that the ruler's kid can go kick rocks and went to rule in his place, I can imagine the NPCs saying that PC is crazy and leaving, particularly the NPCs with 100 Bond with the dead guy. I can also see NPCs saying that warlords come and warlords go, and hanging around anyway as if that pledge never happened (Because really, who will enforce it now? The dead guy?). Maybe a mix of both. If the old ruler was really well established, there might be more turmoil to deal with. There are a lot of possibilities here with no definite, "This is exactly how it would play out," answer.

As a side note, this isn't a place for side notes. We'll talk about rule verification here, not grammar and syntax. Don't do that.